Brielle's Ramblings - Activism

My response to the Atheist Challenge questions

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:27:23 -0600

While browsing the Friendly Atheist, I came across the Atheist Challenge by Brett Keane.

Here are my responses in order:

Jesus junkie spam via Facebook

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:02:09 -0600

I got this today via my Facebook account - a friend invite from a Jesus junkie.

Messenger ForVietnam — via Invite Tool

LORD JESUS CHRIST Speak to You : I call you whit LOVE ! To believe in ME ! Give ME your heart and follow ME !..............
Are you sad?are you angry? Do you want find answears about life?............
www . whygod . co . uk/wires/whodoyousay.html Did Jesus Ever Say He was God? ........
.........www . vietchristian . com/kinhthanh

.........www . jesusfilm . org/languages/index.html...........VIDEO in VIETNAM language

.........www . wbtc . com/site/PageServer?pagename=downloads_vietnamese............WORD of GOD.....
.........www . biblebible . com/Vietnamese/John..........AUDIO

.........www . endoftimes . webs . com/sinnersandangrygod.htm......

.........www . biblebible . com/Hmong/John........AUDIO

........Please go in house (Church) of GOD and you will understand the truth.GO find the Evangelical Christians,DONT BE AFRAID........

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting LIFE.

I had forgotten how easy it is to justify doing things that most people would find rude and inconsiderate, as long as its in the name of jebus!

Regardless, flagged and reported.

What is patriotism?

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:32:34 -0700

Patriotism is standing up for your rights in the face of others who seek to deny you the rights they take for granted.

Patriotism is knowing full well that you will face hate, ridicule, and bigotry, and still being who you are with no compromises.

Patriotism is protesting the laws and actions of this government when they are based on the demands of a few small loud mouth religious fundamentalist zealots.

Patriotism is electing a president who isn't afraid to show he is a human being, and is willing to admit mistakes.

Patriotism is being an active participant in the world, and not the loud mouth bully that Bush made us out to be for the past 8 years.

An enlightening piece on the death of Jerry Falwell

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 16 May 2007 15:23:49 -0600

Alan Wolfe in Salon.com wrote yesterday a rather interesting and very enlightening piece on the death of hate monger and religious fanatic Jerry Falwell.

I personally hated the man - he embodied everything that makes the rest of the world hate this country. He blamed the victims of 9/11 for the attacks. I can't even describe how much this man disgusted me.

In the responses/blogs/letters to the editors section of the article, there were some rather good quotes:

It is widely reported that Falwell apologized for what he said, but in reality he did no such thing. Instead, he opted for a technicality: the gays, lesbians and feminists weren't personally responsible, but God lifted his protective shield over America and allowed the attacks of 9/11 because of their, and others', immorality.

I'm saddened by Falwell's death precisely because it did not spark such a response in me. My initial reaction was good riddance. It's truly a shame that Falwell's life was so reprehensible and divisive that his death commands so little empathy.

Falwell represented, in simple terms, the very worst aspects of being both an American and being a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. As an American, he perpetuated the racist, sexist, heterosexist heritage that is still deeply woven through much of this land of ours. As a Christian, he took the easy road- preaching a message of intolerance, damnation- fire and brimstone as it used to be called.

You can read the full contents of these letters here.

Censorship in NY Prison: Zen Buddhism book denied

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 12:23:00 -0600

This little bit was just forwarded to me by one of my close friends, Venerable Kobutsu Malone, of the Engaged Zen Foundation.

He recently began publishing his new book, Prison Chaplaincy Guidelines for Zen Buddhism: A Sourcebook for Prison Chaplains, Administrators, and Security Personnel and has found that Gowanda Correctional Facility rejected a copy of the book before it ever reached the prisoner it was being sent to.

You can read the article posted on Buddhist Channel here.

Please consider buying the book and/or contacting the prison at the address given in the article and expressing your disagreement with their policies.

Religious Ads: A New Low

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 10:34:07 -0600

Ok, so I'm going to give my standard warning for anyone who wants to read this article:

If you are a highly religious individual who can not take criticism or accept the fact that you may be stepping over the line in your fight to destroy evolution in favor of your Intellegent Design theory (which by the way, as never been proven or backed in scientific facts), you should not read this post. Also, if you are a republican, reading my blog in general may piss you off.

Now, with the standard disclaimer out of the way, lets get to the meat of this article.

I woke up this morning and found that my blog ads had been infested with Intellegent Design (aka: creationism) advertisements - pewforum.org, 1cosmos.org, creationdesign.org, and others.

Now, for those of you who missed my previous post on Intellegent Design, or just don't know what it is in general, its considered junk science by most of the Scientific community. Basically, its a new spin on the old idea that God created everything and anything - but without actually using the word 'god'.

So, let me pose this question to the people who are putting up these ads:

Why, if your theory is so sound, solid, and unrefutable, why do you feel it necessary to boost your views by advertising on Google?

You don't see advertisements trying to shove evolution down people's throats (perhaps because evolution is an accepted theory that is based in fact rather then the bible...). Is this just more desperation? Rather then trying to prove Intellegent Design with actual facts, use a crow bar to ram it down on people while completely dancing around the truth?

No offense to the people who read this and believe in Intellegent Design or Creationisim - but come on. Can we please grow up?

More absurd claims/comments by the far right

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:51:53 -0600

Just when you thought the far right had finally gotten over the purple teletubby, superman wearing tights, and Spongebob, they now have their new poster child of the evil gays - American Girl.

You know, that doll thats really popular with girls these days?

Wel, according to the far right, the doll is designed to make girls lesbians. This is because of the company's support for Girls Inc.

Read one of the many articles on this subject here.

More rants about the religious right and hate crimes

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 19:24:44 -0600

I've been watching various things unfold over the past few months in regards to the increasing attacks and intolerance against the GLBT community by the far right religious fanatics and fundamentalists.

It disgusts me highly to see how casually these people attack and cause hate, then use the bible as their shield. I remember back in 2001 right after the WTC attack, Jerry Falwell and his right wing fundamentalists blamed the attacks on the GLBT community, feminists, ACLU, etc (for those interested in more about Falwell, Rotten.com has a bio here).

Matthew Shepard's death was justified by the fanatics and killers as being dictated or required by the bible.

More recently, we have the case of Gwen Araujo, having been killed by several individuals because of who she was.

So, here in 2005 we have new laws that are being written to try and protect members of the GLBT community - however, there are a large enough group of people blocking these efforts, in an obvious attempt to make sure their future hatred and attacks against others won't be considered hate crimes (and thus face longer jail time/punishments then otherwise).

People need to stop using their religion as a way to justify attacks, killing, and hate. It's too bad most of the people who claim to be Christians or similar don't bother to actually follow some of the things the bible says. Following it only when convenient seems to be popular these days.

Another anti-Bush quote from IRC

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 20:31:48 -0600

A quote between me and a friend of mine on IRC a few mins ago:

friend: that's why he isn't president - so get a monkey as a frontman - and cheney runs it from behind him

friend: let's face it - cheney is a fucking ventriloquist - and bush is most certainly a dummy

me: heh

me: hey, remember during the debates, the thing on bush's back?

me: the square box?

friend: yep

me: I think I know what that is now!

me: its Cheny's remote control box!

friend: cheney's hand

friend: gotta pity cheney - walking around all day with his hand stuffed up W's arse

me: hahah

Congrats to Christopher Lamparello on winning his appeal!

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 22:33:55 -0600

Congrats are in order for Christopher Lamparello on winning the appeal about his domain, fallwell.com.

Its always nice to see the religious nutjobs be put in their place whenever they try to silence their critics.

Blessed Hope Communications: Because God Supports Us!

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sun, 15 May 2005 15:38:57 -0600

Oh boy, the religious whackjobs are at it again - this time they are involved with long distance. Just goes to show you the lengths some people will go to in order to get business.

"Blessed Hope Communications"

Now for the fun part, lets rip apart their pages and give a blow by blow attack on their claims!

Our first bit of fun comes from this page.

As you can see from our web site, Blessed Hope offers the very lowest long distance rates in the country with no monthly fees and six-second incremental billing.

Well, hate to burst your bubble guys, but I can name several people who give better rates then you. How about BroadVoice, with their unlimited local/long distance/worldwide calling plan for $30 or so a month? Or how about NuFone with their 800/866/877/888 service at 2c a minute?

Seething yet? Yeah, I thought so

Saving money is great, but given the choice, I believe in my heart that most believers would prefer doing business with fellow Christians.

I dont know about anyone else, but I'd take a knowledgeable and well known business over a bunch of religious whackjobs any day...

Every call you make through Lifeline is now supporting MCI, a company that supports things like homosexuality, abortion, and the ACLU. Certainly MCI should not be an appealing choice to Christians.

So much for those Christian values eh? When it suits you, you have no problems attacking your own in a flurry of insults. I almost feel sorry for this "Lifeline" service.

But anyway, to what I was really going to say... You know, god forbid a company should support things that encourage people to make their own decisions in life, defend their rights, and cause them to have an open mind. As we know, people with open minds tend to make miserable peons to the Church.

Choosing an unknown long distance carrier can be even worse than choosing "The Big Three."

Unknown long distance carriers... you mean like you guys?

For some even bigger laughs, check out their page here.

Froth you nutty religious conservatives. You know you want to. Honesty about things is not what you like to hear.

I can be very calm and fair, but at the same time, I never pass up an oppertunity to take a shot at the far right conservative whackjobs that tend to rear their ugly heads. Whee!

Church once again pulling politics

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sat, 07 May 2005 10:08:21 -0600

Not happy that everyone isn't a mindless conservative extreme-right drone, Pastor Chan Chandler of a church in N.C. has decided to kick out all of its Democrat congregants.

TruthOut: Democrats Voted Out of Baptist Church

The particular quote I love in this:

The head of the North Carolina Democratic Party sharply criticized the pastor Friday, saying Chandler jeopardized his church's tax-free status by openly supporting a candidate for president.

"If these reports are true, this minister is not only acting extremely inappropriately by injecting partisan politics into a house of worship, but he is also potentially breaking the law," Chairman Jerry Meek said.

One could only hope they get their tax-free status yanked.

Ballmer responds to Microsoft's change of heart

bruns@2mbit.com (Brielle) — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 12:12:08 -0600

Apparently, after having been shred apart by various groups over their bending about the whole anti-discrimination bill, Steve Ballmer has responded to his employees in an e-mail.

Copy of the e-mail here.

Some excerpts and my responses:

I have done a lot of thinking and soul-searching over the past 24 hours on this subject, and I want to share with you my thoughts on how a company like Microsoft should deal with these kinds of issues.

I didn't know that having a soul was allowed when you worked for Microsoft. You learn something new every day!

We are thinking hard about what is the right balance to strike -- when should a public company take a position on a broader social issue, and when should it not? What message does the company taking a position send to its employees who have strongly-held beliefs on the opposite side of the issue?

Of course, Microsoft has no problems attacking people's opinions on how they should license their software. They must forget that stuff like the GPL tends to be a social issue as well as a business issue...

Bah, I dont feel like responding to anything else. Once again, another lame excuse from Microsoft. You can see the Slashdot article here.